Pohoiki in the Future Perfect Tense

[Obie]

Drove down there to check it out last Monday and there were dozens of cars parked along the Red Road.
People all over the beach but almost no one in the water.

Went down again yesterday now that it's opened and about 6 cars in the parking lot, 1 couple on the sand and a family with kids picnicking on the launch ramp.
Tour van loaded with about a dozen young ladies in bikinis with foreign accents.

Cobble is piling up in the former entrance channel. This cobble is already worn round from rolling back and forth. You can hear the rocks rolling.
Near vertical cliff is building up near the launch ramp making ocean access near impossible. Walking on rolling cobble into the surf impossible.

Report from a friend that the back ponds are so hot you can only stay in the water for a few minutes..

Water color is a nice green.

[MarkD]

It seems the  decision has been made that the full monte "fix the boat entrance" project will NOT take place for Pohoiki.  That would be a radically expanded project that either 1) clears all the debris/sand/rock out of Pohoiki Bay, including what was formerly known as "second bay" to the south or 2) re-clears the main channel and installs giant concrete walls on either side.

Therefore, how about this far less expensive proposal to benefit the ocean swimming area objective?

Re-dig the project just as it was before.  Place a big pipe (or several) into the trench, ensuring the pipe on the ocean side extends 15-20 feet beyond the furthest edge of the debris field.  Result: much cleaner water in the pond by the broad ramp.

[Obie]

The problem is everyone was worried about development and destruction of the environment.

It would require about a million dollars for permits from half a dozen government agencies and
It would require some creative engineering to keep from sucking someone thru the tubes.

[kalakoa]

The problem is everyone was worried about development and destruction of the environment.

Nonsense. If they were really worried, they would move far away and let the Hawaii ecosystems recover.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

engineering to keep from sucking someone thru the tubes.

Because someone will figure out a way to get sucked into the pipe from either side, accidentally.

[MarkD]

Put a grate at either end of the pipe.  6 inch mesh.  Prevents sucking into the pipe.  And there's not enough pressure on either side to suck someone up against the underwater grate and hold them under and drown them.  That might be the case if Hawaii had a very big  tidal range, but it doesn't. 

Also pipes can be made with a flared end so a pipe with a 4 foot circumference can have a meshed entrance that is 2-3 times as large. This reduces the pressure of any inflow or outflow that could be a hazard the swimmers.

[MyManao]

Put a grate at either end of the pipe..

I doubt the water’s condition would be bettered all that much by a drain. As it is I doubt the debris there now is in any appreciable way blocking the flow of water.. otherwise we wouldn’t see the tidal variations in its level as we do now. And, judging by the flow rate as seen when there was a small opening and the vids showed a strong one way (makai) flow of water, I doubt it would change much. There’s a lot of water draining out of that spring and it is flowing into the ocean without much resistance as it is now.

The thing is it’s a brackish pond, a mix of fresh and salt water, and the fresh water is hot, or at least warm, depending on how much rainfall the area recently had. And, brackish pounds are tricky environments that are not hospitable to most marine life. For instance a lot of folks talked about the water’s temp killing the ocean fish that got trapped in the pond when it got closed in, whereas I’d wager the fresh water had an equal if not greater impact.. salt water organisms die in fresh water.

In fact doing anything, making any capital improvements, in a transitory thing like the pile of sand at Pohoiki would be foolish. The whole thing is destined to be washed away.. so why bother? Especially when nobody seems to be able to engineer an outcome with any amount of predicability. It’s a crap shoot.

The thing that still gets me is why do folks not accept the impacts of the volcano? People talk about being reverent of Pele, and Pele made the beach, so what’s the problem? Sheesh, I'd wager more than a few of the fishermen that would use the ramp would tell you how much they believe in Pele. They would tell you about sacred this and sacred that, so why isn’t that pile of sand equally as sacred? Pele put it there, so what’s the problem? Just like with PGV, Pele surely made her intent clear with the way she skirted their infrastructure and cleared out all their neighbors. But no, just like there, when it comes to Pohoiki Pele, and her clearly demonstrated wishes, are dissed. In other words their beliefs are malleable.. and only apply when it suits.

The upshot.. I hope gov realizes they already threw a lot of money at nothing and quit.. that the part of the community that doesn’t like the way the volcano does its thing find somewhere else that's more to their liking and goes there.. and the rest of us can get back to appreciating our volcanic landscape in its natural form. Kilauea is an active volcano love it or leave it or at least please stop demanding she be what she isn’t.

For those without the institutional knowledge of what was before all this hullabaloo here’s a pic of Pohoiki from a similar vantage point as the series I posted above, from the Hale's hale, but before all the changes.. way before..



And btw, MarkD, if you’re jonesing for a nice ocean side inland swimming ‘hole’ have you ever tried the one on the Kam School side (south) of Keei peninsula? Man, that is a gem.

[kalianna]

Where is Keei peninsula? What Kam school? Keeau is inland. Iʻm jonesing. Please say more about this sacred swimming hole. And please tell me youʻre not talking about the pool.

[MyManao]

Where is Keei peninsula?

Keei is the little, once fishing, village on the southern tip of Kealakekua Bay in South Kona. It is the coastal portion of the Honaunau ahupua’a, of which since the Great Mahele Kamehameha Schools has owned the lion’s share. On the back side, the southern side of the peninsula, they had a large presence, of which some of the structures are still around. And now, they are inching up to developing the entire peninsula, it’s a very controversial issue.

Back in the day they had created along the coast a safe swimming pool, a pond, of sorts that can be seen in the satellite view here. That pool is salt water and has enough underwater access to the ocean for it to be full of sea life, and yet the wall on the makai side affords it an ever present calm. It’s a full on immersive tidal biosphere.. sort of like what Wai'opae would have become given time but in miniature.

[MarkD]

Thanks for the  link on that swimming site.  Essentially these can be made by deepening a tidepool.  6-7 feet deep allows proper swimming, which includes treading water.


Hawaii Island has hundreds of tide pools only less than 3 feet deep at high tide.  The Old Airport is a good site for deepening the shoreline.  Parking there is ample; this would allow many people in Kona who want an easy swim to have a new place.  People who aren't good swimmers and don't want to swim out in the middle of Kailua bay like all the Ironman participants do.


People who would prefer not to crowd into Kahalu'u Bay as they do now, because that is one of the few easily accessible safe swimming sites in Kailua.  (The small bay next to the Kailua Pier is good for novice swimmers, but parking in that area is a hassle.) But try to get support on Hawaii Island to see the value or necessity of creating such swimming sites.  The idea is  shot down by most evironmentalists.  Coastal degradation.